1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods and apparatuses associated with the distribution of program products for computer systems.
2. Background Information
Program products are typically distributed in a vendor centric manner as illustrated in FIG. 1. Code control system is employed to provide versioning control to source files associated with program products on the vendors"" system or systems. Only the xe2x80x9creleasexe2x80x9d version of a program product source file is converted into object or executable form for distribution to the users, and the conversion process is performed on the vendors"" systems. Examples of these vendor centric code control systems include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,558,413, 4,912,637, 5,357,631 and 5,495,610.
Under this conventional vendor centric approach to source control and distribution, each program product group or software vendor goes about its development, conversion and distribution with little regard to other program product groups or software vendors, except perhaps performing certain amount of system level testing with a small group of selected program products. As a result, it is not unusual for a user, upon installing a number of program products, to find that the program products are incompatible and may not operate together, or upon applying a fix to one program product, other previously functioning program products or the entire system would fail. Once finding himself/herself in such a predicament, there are few choices available to the user, and furthermore, there are limited tools available for the user to deal with the problems. Often times, the remedial action requires distribution of an entire replacement version, as opposed to merely the xe2x80x9cbrokenxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9coffendingxe2x80x9d parts.
Additionally, the prior art vendor centric approach to source control is also restrictive in fostering program product interoperability. For example, a vendor of a program product requiring minor extension support from another program product of a different vendor would nevertheless require support and close cooperation from the other vendor. As a further example, users of the same program product are often frustrated in their cooperation by virtue of the fact that they operate with different version levels of the vendor""s program product.
These problems or disadvantages are especially undesirable in view of the opportunities to offer the ever increasing population of potential users (which are typically novice), an ever increasing array of functionally rich consumer program products for installation and use on their ever more powerful personal computer systems. Thus, an improved approach to software distribution, including a complementary code control system, is desired.
A user centric approach to program product distribution, including a complementary multi-vendor code control system (MVCCS) suitable for use on a user computer system or its proxy to practice the user centric distribution approach is disclosed. Under the user centric approach, versioning control information of various program products to be installed on various user computer systems are maintained on a user computer system by user computer system basis. Each user computer system and/or its proxy is provided with a portion or the entire MVCCS to facilitate receipt and storage into a common repository for the user computer system versioning control information of different source/object files of different software vendors, and to facilitate retrieval of selective versions of the different source/object files for the user computer system using versioning control information stored in the common repository for the user computer system.
In one embodiment, the MVCCS is further equipped to facilitate receipt and storage into a common library, the different source/object files. In one embodiment, the different source/object files are identified by corresponding universally unique identifiers (UUID), and the versioning control information includes predecessor UUID information. In one embodiment, the common repository is disposed on the user computer system. In one embodiment, the common library is also disposed on the user computer system.